ELIZABETH — By the admission of both attorneys, it's not a pleasant story. A 45-year-old woman was attacked so viciously with a box cutter that an artery near her temple burst and tendons in her arms were severed. A doctor testified she'd lost a third of the blood in her body.

Now a jury must determine if the man on trial is the one responsible for the brutal incident that occurred in the middle of the night, or, if as the defense has argued, the suspect was thrown out by the victim's angry boyfriend before the violence began.

Julian Morales, 54, faces attempted murder and related charges for the July 14, 2009 incident at the Elizabeth home on Fulton Street. The trial, which began last Wednesday ended this morning with summations from both attorneys.

The prosecution has argued that Morales went to the home, where he used to live with Maria Segarra, and stole a cell phone from her room to buy crack. He also took a box cutter from her nightstand, prosecutors said.

When Segarra tried to stop Morales from taking the phone, she testified things got violent.

"He took the box cutter out of his pocket and started cutting me," Segarra said on the stand last week. "He was on top of me. He was cutting me, crazy-like."

Segarra testified that her housemate Hector Perez tried to intervene and was also injured in the attack.

Assistant Prosecutor Josh McMahon showed the jury photos of Segarra in which she's wrapped in gauze from her shoulder to her finger tips. He also displayed close-up photos of the deep gash wounds on her neck and head which many jurors only glimpsed at before averting their gaze.

"He was looking to get high that night and she got in the way of his addiction," McMahon said. "an addiction that he told you was decades old."

McMahon called the victim, who admitted to using five bags of heroin a day, "a flawed woman" who "is not beneath the protections of the law."

Morales, who took the stand Tuesday, told a very different story. He testified that Segarra called him, inviting him to "spend time with her" in exchange for money so she could buy drugs. Morales said he went to the home, gave her $80 and had relations with her.

Then, he said the roommate, Hector Perez, got angry and told him to leave the house. Defense attorney Robert Ungvary argued in his closing today that it was probably Perez, not Morales who attacked the woman in a domestic dispute.

"This is an unfortunate situation all around but how often does it happen that a victim of domestic abuse blames someone else?" Ungvary said. "I'm asking you to use common sense, which story is more credible?"

In addition to the attempted murder charge, Morales faces aggravated assault, armed burglary and weapon charges. Because of his lengthy criminal record, which includes seven prior convictions, Morales could face life in prison if he is found guilty.